


Care

by paperjamBipper



Series: Memory Lane [13]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Pines Family Feels, Sickfic, The Power Of Mabel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25438369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperjamBipper/pseuds/paperjamBipper
Summary: Mabel doesn't like to admit when she's feeling sick.
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Ford Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Mabel Pines & Everyone
Series: Memory Lane [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830763
Comments: 1
Kudos: 34





	Care

It’s a peaceful, quiet morning in the Mystery Shack. Everyone is calmly doing their own thing. Dipper’s in the living room watching Ducktective reruns, Stan’s in the gift shop, and Ford’s at the kitchen table editing one of his journals.

The kitchen’s clean and the living room floor is clear. There’s something eerily calm about the atmosphere, but nobody can place what it is. Ford had suggested it was an effect of Weirdmageddon’s end, but Dipper wasn’t buying it. Even if Weirdmageddon had never happened, the shack would never be this quiet. Dipper had settled on the fact that it was still early in the morning.

He glances over at the clock in the other room. It reads 12:00 noon. He turns his attention back to the TV for a moment before realization hits him so hard he jumps up out of his seat. _Mabel hasn’t woken up yet._ The living room floor is missing its usual set off yarn balls, needles, and paint sets. The kitchen’s absent of its half empty jugs of Mabel juice, spilt sugar, and burned slices of toast.

The shack isn’t clean. It’s empty. Mabel usually wakes up hours before everyone else and by the time everyone else wakes up she would have already eaten three breakfasts and started on her next sweater. That also explains why it’s so quiet. Mabel’s usually the one to get everyone in the same room and initiate a conversation.

Dipper switches off the TV and runs back up the stairs to the attic. When he opens the door, he’s surprised to find that Mabel is still in her bed. Dipper approaches her bed and shakes her slowly.

“Mabel? Are you okay?” He asks quietly, and she groans loudly. Pushing the blanket back onto her shoulder, she turns the other way.

“Mabel, wake up.” He says, and she mumbles something inaudible before pretending to fall back asleep.

“You do realize it’s after noon, right?” He asks, and she turns over in bed to face him.

“What?” she asks with a raspy voice, and whips the covers off of her. When she attempts to jump up she almost tips over, and Dipper has to catch her to make sure she doesn’t fall. “Ughh” she groans, relying on Dipper to stand up.

“Mabel, are you sick?”

“What? No! I feel gr-” Mabel pauses to sneeze, and wipes her nose on her night gown. “I feel great” she says, but sneezes again.

Dipper frowns. “Come on, we’re going downstairs”

Mabel laughs uncomfortably. “Why would I need to? There’s nothing I need downstairs. Nope”

“Season 3 of Ducktective just started on TV”

Mabel sighs, and Dipper takes her hand to help her down the stairs. Instead of heading into the living room, Dipper leads her into the kitchen where Ford is sitting. Mabel squints at the bright light.

“Hey Great Uncle Ford? I found her” Dipper says, and Ford looks up from his book. His blank expression turns into a frown as soon as he gets a good look at Mabel. He closes the book and kneels beside her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Are you feeling alright?” He asks, and she stops squinting for a moment to look at him.

“I feel fantastic” she replies, but trips over nothing and begins squinting again.

Ford frowns, and stands back up. “I’m going to get Stanley. Bring her into the living room”

“You can’t tell me what to-” Mabel starts, but is easily dragged along to the living room and into Stan’s recliner.

“Alright, where is she?” Stan says as he comes into the living room and Dipper points to Mabel sitting in his chair.

“I told you guys! I’m fine” Mabel says as Stan drapes a blanket over her.

“She never likes to admit she was sick. We once had to strap her down to her bed when she had a fever because she heard mom sneeze and tried to prove she was okay by taking care of her” Dipper says, and Stan laughs.

“I don’t think we’re gonna have to resort to that” Stan says, pulling out the recliner so Mabel doesn’t have to. “I think just taking care of her should be enough” Stan says, and looks over at Ford. “Do you think you can get her a wet towel for her forehead?” He asks, and Ford leaves the room.

“I’m telling you guys! I’m not sick!” she says, and then starts to cough.

“You want me to make you a cup of your special tea?” Dipper asks, and Mabel sighs in defeat.

“Yes please” Mabel says, and Dipper heads into the kitchen. He pulls out a lemon, raspberry, and blueberry tea bag and puts them all in the same cup. He fills it about halfway with hot water, and stirs the three flavors together. He then takes out the sugar, pours a few spoons full into the cup, and walks back into the living room. Ford must have gotten there before him, because the wet towel is already lying across her forehead.

“Here you go” Dipper says, and Mabel smiles, taking the cup from him.

“Three scoops of sugar?” She asks

“Three scoops” Dipper repeats, and Mabel takes a large sip before handing it back to him. Just then, Stan comes in with a large cushion and places it behind her head.

“There you go, sweetie” He says, and Ford walks back into the room with Waddles following closely behind him.

“I thought you might want some company” Ford says, and when Waddles sees Mabel lying back on the chair, he squeals excitedly and launches himself onto her lap.

“You guys…” Mabel says with an embarrassed tone in her voice as she takes her tea cup back from Dipper. “You guys really shouldn’t be putting so much time into taking care of me”

“What? Of course we should!” Stan says taking the towel off of Mabel’s head to refresh the cold water on it.

“Yeah, what makes you say that?” Dipper says, adjusting the blanket Waddles screwed up when he jumped up on Mabel’s lap. “We’re not just gonna stand around while you’re sick and not do anything about it”

“But I don’t want to waste your time” She says as Stan comes back in the room.

“That’s ridiculous! You’re not wasting our time at all. It’s the least we could do for you” Stan says as he places the towel back on her forehead.

“Mabel, you do so much for us when you didn’t need to. Taking care of you when you’re sick is the least we could do for you”

“Really?” Mabel says, and sits up slowly.

“Whenever I was sick when we were younger you didn’t let Mom and Dad near me until you ‘diagnosed’ me with a cold and came up with all these complicated methods on how to cure each of my symptoms in a way that was easy for me. That’s incredible”

“Yeah! And you’re really great at advice” Stan says, but then leans in and whispers to Mabel. “The night after Ford came back was one of the worst nights of my life until you came in and comforted me”

“And as much as I hate to admit it, you’re really good at convincing me to go to sleep.” Ford says, and rubs the back of his head awkwardly. “Even that time I accidentally smacked you when you tried to drag me to bed from behind. Or the time you crushed up some of Stan’s sleeping pills into my coffee” Ford ruffles her hair.

“You always take time out of your day to take care of us. It’s time we turn things around and take care of you” Dipper says, and Mabel smiles.

“Thanks, you guys. I love you” She says, and turns on her side to take a nap.

“Love you too, sweetie” Stan says, and they all wait for Mabel to fall asleep to turn the living room lights off and walk away.


End file.
